In code we trust: Online Hackathon 2021
With the Bavarian American House Foundation, Bavaria has the largest institution in Germany dedicated to communicating the importance of transatlantic ties to younger generations. One project currently underway is the virtual hackathon "In Code We Trust - Responsible Innovation for a Flourishing Society," in which young talents from Bavaria are developing digital solutions to challenges in the areas of environment and climate, health, cybersecurity, and the fight against disinformation. The Zentrum Digitalisierung.Bayern (ZD.B) at Bayern Innovativ is a cooperation partner and supports the hackathon and the participating teams with expertise from the organization's networks. Dr. Imme Witzel, head of the ZD.B theme platform Working World 4.0 and Dominik Golle, head of the ZD.B theme platform Consumer Affairs support the teams as experts.
What is so special about this hackathon and why is BI participating as a cooperation partner?
Dr. Imme Witzel: At the Hackathon "In Code we trust" participants develop ideas on how software-based solutions can solve acute social problems. They program apps or other digital tools - for example, for trustworthy media, environmentally sustainable energy resources , an efficient healthcare system , secure communication systems , an orderly bureaucracy, and an economy that provides for all. The digitization , especially use-oriented digital tools, but also gaming applications , are an efficient means to stabilize critical infrastructures and thus promote societies based on freedom and innovation.
Digital tools can both impact the private lives of individual citizen:s and help address larger societal challenges. Disruptive technologies like blockchain or Artificial Intelligence can improve our daily individual, social, and political lives. They can help address the challenges posed by disinformation campaigns, radicalism, or forces of nature such as climate change or pandemics.
The hackathon involves young people from Bavaria with very different backgrounds - for example, students, vocational school pupils or young people doing a voluntary social year. All are united by the goal of jointly developing solutions and innovations for a responsible approach to digitalization . The special thing about it is: The teams consist of participants with as well as those without programming knowledge. Everyone works in an interdisciplinary way. This is particularly important when you want to master complex challenges -the strength of the teams lies in the fact that knowledge from completely different disciplines complements each other.
Why do you need an interdisciplinary approach? Can't you address social issues with technical solutions alone?
Dominik Golle: The fact that technology alone does not solve problems has been recognized by most people after almost three decades of unregulated, digital development. As early as 2011, for example, Evgeny Morozov, in his book "The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom," prominently warned against neglecting the sociocultural context in which new technologies are to be used when it comes to digital innovations. After all, what good is the best application if it fails to address social reality?
A popular example from hackathons is neighborhood apps, which are designed to help old people with their shopping by letting young people do it for a small fee. For a neighborhood app to actually strengthen neighborhood cohesion, you have to understand the local social context in detail. Because if, for example, the app is only used by digitally savvy retired people as a low-cost alternative to delivery services, rather than by people who actually need neighborhood help, it misses its target.
From this you can see that the technical development of an app is the simple part of developing a solution. Identifying a social problem and developing a working solution for it that will actually be adopted is much more difficult. This requires interdisciplinary teams that are not afraid to talk directly to their target groups, to involve them in the development process, and even to discard good technical ideas once in a while that are simply not considered.
What is the contribution of ZD.B and BI to the hackathon?
Dr. Imme Witzel: Bayern Innovativ and the ZD.B support the hackathon and the teams with knowledge from the organization's networks. If a team gets stuck on a specific issue, we can call in experts from our environment who can help quickly and easily with their knowledge. We have developed this "expert consultation hour" with actors from our network in addition to the existing offers at ZD.B and are already very excited to see what questions the teams come to us with.
Why do you need hackathons? How can you ensure that you achieve results that are sustainable?
Dominik Golle: At the latest since the WirVsVirus hackathon last year, we have been experiencing a real hackathonization in Germany: hackathons are sprouting up like mushrooms and are hyped as the saviors for the big problems of our time. In fact, hackathons are a great way to directly involve the population in solving societal problems, to quickly generate a lot of ideas and to create impressive networks - when can you just talk to government employees about their daily challenges and then ask a big Internet company to provide you with a free server infrastructure?
Nevertheless, we must not close our eyes to the fact that problems like the climate change or social polarization cannot be solved in one weekend. This requires a rethinking of society as a whole, on the one hand, and long-term funding for infrastructure and the like, on the other. If we want to create sustainable change with hackathons, we need to move away from developing (only) beautiful user interfaces , but focus on less sexy topics like culture change in business and government, or government-funded digital infrastructure. It should also actively engage civil society organizations, many of which have been working to address such issues for years.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE HACKATHON NOW!
Thank you very much for the interview!